Understanding what leads people to reverse their choices is important in many domains. We introduce a contrast paradigm for studying reversals in choices—here between pairs of abstract paintings—implemented in both within-subject (Experiment 1; N = 320) and between-subject (Experiment 2; N = 384) designs. On each trial, participants chose between a pair of paintings. A critical pair of average-beauty paintings was presented before and after either a reversal or control block. In the reversal block, we made efforts to bias preference away from the chosen average-beauty painting (by pairing it with more-beautiful paintings) and toward the non-chosen average-beauty painting (by pairing it with less-beautiful paintings). Meta-analysis revealed more reversals after reversal blocks than after control blocks, though only when the biasing manipulations succeeded. A second meta-analysis revealed that reversals were generally more likely for participants who later misidentified their initial choice, demonstrating that memory for initial choices influences later choices. Thus, the contrast paradigm has utility both for inducing choice reversals and identifying their causes.

April
Inducing preference reversals in aesthetic choices for paintings: Introducing the contrast paradigm
Zorry Belchev 0 1 2
Glen E. Bodner 0 1 2
Jonathan M. Fawcett 0 2
0 a Current address: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto , Toronto, Ontario , Canada ¤ b Current address: Psychology , Flinders University , Adelaide, South Australia , Australia
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calgary , Calgary, Alberta , Canada , 2 Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland , St. John's, Newfoundland , Canada
2 Editor: Jonathan Jong, Coventry University , UNITED KINGDOM
paintingsÐimplemented in both within-subject (Experiment 1; N = 320) and between-subject (Experiment 2; N = 384) designs. On each trial, participants chose between a pair of paintings. A critical pair of average-beauty paintings was presented before and after either a reversal or control block. In the reversal block, we made efforts to bias preference away from the chosen average-beauty painting (by pairing it with more-beautiful paintings) and toward the non-chosen average-beauty painting (by pairing it with less-beautiful paintings). Meta-analysis revealed more reversals after reversal blocks than after control blocks, though only when the biasing manipulations succeeded. A second meta-analysis revealed that reversals were generally more likely for participants who later misidentified their initial choice, demonstrating that memory for initial choices influences later choices. Thus, the contrast paradigm has utility both for inducing choice reversals and identifying their causes.
-
Data Availability Statement: The data and
metaanalyses underlying this study have been uploaded
to the Open Science Framework and can be
accessed using the following link: https://osf.io/
j5a76/.
Funding: This research was supported by the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada through Discovery Grant RGPIN
238599-2015 to GEB. The funder had no role in
study design, data collection and analysis, decision
to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Introduction
Making choices is a ubiquitous part of daily life. Evaluations are often made impetuously [
1
],
yet they can have enduring effects on our preferences [
2
]. An important research area is thus
to understand how experiences shape our preferences, that is, our liking of one stimulus over
another [3±6]. To this end, here we introduce a contrast paradigm for inducing reversals in
choices between pairs of stimuli. Our paradigm also enables the exploration of predictors of
reversals, such as the accuracy of one's memory for prior choices.
Preferences have been studied for stimuli ranging from faces [
7
] to music genres [
8
] to
political views [
9
]. Here we investigated aesthetic judgments (i.e., those concerned with one's
appreciation of beauty), an area rich in history in psychology [
10
]. Specifically, we measured
reversals in aesthetic choices among pairs of abstract paintings that were matched for beauty
and initial preference via piloting. Although art appreciation is colloquially believed to be
highly subjective, there is good agreement regarding what makes a painting beautiful (e.g.,
greater complexity, semantic meaning) [
11
], and people's preferences are relatively consistent
[
12
]. Of course, people may be more likely to reverse their choice when a preference has not
yet been established, and/or when they initially deem the two choices to be equivalent. Before
introducing our contrast paradigm, we briefly review existing methods of producing
preference reversals.
Four methods have commonly been used to induce preference reversals, and subsequently
to enable the factors that moderate reversals to be studied. First, task-induced preference
reversals can be induced by changing the nature of the task across choices. This method is
often embedded in gambling tasks in which participants are first asked to choose between
options, and are later asked to bid on each option [
13, 14
]. Second, frame-induced preference
reversals can be induced by framing two equivalent options in opposite ways for different sets
of participants. For example, as pioneered by Tversky and Kahneman [15], framing disease
treatment-program choices in terms of ªlives lostº leads to a preference for risk-seeking
programs, whereas framing in terms of ªlives savedº leads to a preference for risk-averse
programs. Third, context-induced preference reversals can be induced by manipulating the
availability of other options and their relative inferiority/superiority [
16
]. This method often
introduces a third option that alters one's evaluation of the other two options, usually termed a
target and a competitor [17±21]. These three methods are usually used to study reversals in
value-based choices and ratings associated with extrinsic rewards or consequences (i.e.,
gambling), or between consumer products. More recently, context-dependent methods have also
been used to influence riskless, perception-based judgments not associated with explicit
rewards or losses (e.g., choosing which shape has the largest area), showing that context
influences many types of decisions [22±24]. A fourth method for inducing reversals for such
judgments relies on a gaze bias manipulation in which after making an initial choice, the stimulus
not chosen is presented for longer durations than the chosen stimulus during cycles of an
exposure phase. On a second choice trial, this gaze bias can induce a choice reversal [25±26].
Our study departed from these methods of inducing preference reversals. We did not
manipulate the task, the framing of the choices, the choices offered, or how those choices were
presented. Instead, we simply manipulated the choices participants made on other trials
involving the critical paintings. Specifically, we attempted to induce a choice reversal for the
same pair of paintings merely by inserting a set of 6 choice trials between the two presentations
that capitalized on the existence of contrast effects on aesthetic judgments.
When context influences a judgment, either contrast or assimilation may result [
27
]. When
considering aesthetic judgments, a contrast effect occurs when a target stimulus (e.g., a
painting) is liked more when presented in the context of a less-pleasant stimulus (e.g., a
less-beautiful painting), and/or is liked less when presented in the context of a more-pleasant stimulus
(e.g., a more-beautiful painting). An assimilation effect refers to the converse outcome: A
target painting is liked more when presented with a more-beautiful painting, and/or is liked less
when presented with a less-beautiful painting.
Perceptual contrast effects include the Ebbinghaus illusion in which circles of the same size
are perceived as smaller if they are surrounded by big circles, or bigger if they are surrounded
by smaller circles [
28
]. In the realm of aesthetics, a musical melody was liked less when
presented after a more-pleasant melody than when it was presented first (i.e., a negative contrast
effect) [
29
]. When the more-pleasant musical melody was presented second, it was liked more
than if it had been presented first (i.e., a positive contrast effect). Some researchers have found
that evaluations of facial beauty can evoke assimilation effects [
30
]. To date, however, context
has predominantly yielded contrast rather than assimilation effects on aesthetic judgments.
For example, contrast effects occur for photographs [
31
], representational paintings [
32
], and
abstract paintings [33±35].
2 / 15
We developed a contrast paradigm designed to induce reversals in people's aesthetic
choices between pairs of average-beauty abstract paintings. Through a pilot study, we selected
average, low, and high beauty paintings for use in the paradigm. At the outset of the main
experiments, participants chose which of two average abstract paintings from a critical pair
was deemed more beautiful. In a reversal block, we attempted to shift their preference from
their initially chosen painting toward the other painting. To this end, on some reversal block
trials, participants chose between their initial choice and a more-beautiful paintingÐthus we
used contrast to decrease the perceived beauty of their initial choice painting. On other trials,
participants chose between the non-chosen critical painting and a less-beautiful paintingÐ
thus here we used contrast to increase the perceived beauty of their non-chosen painting. The
same pair of critical paintings was then presented again. Our measure was whether a
preference reversal occurred across choices. This reversal rate was compared to a control block in
which the same trials described above involved a different pair of average-beauty paintings. To
test for generality, this contrast paradigm was implemented in a within-subjects design in
Experiment 1A/1B (i.e., each participant received 1 reversal block and 1 control block) and in
a between-subjects design in Experiment 2 (i.e., each participant received 2 reversal blocks or 2
control blocks). The between-subject design increased the number of choice reversal
opportunities for each condition, and eliminated the potential carry-over effects of the preceding block
type.
We collected data in a small number of experiments using large samples. This was necessary
because each experiment had only 1 or 2 critical pairs for a given block type, giving us only 1
or 2 opportunities to observe a choice reversal for each participant. In turn, the number of
blocks we could present was constrained by the number of consistently rated paintings we
were able to obtain. To provide the most accurate picture of the pattern of results from these
experiments we therefore used a meta-analytic approach, which allowed us to explore whether
a reversal effect occurred, and also whether the use of a within- vs. between-subject design
moderated this effect. Another potential moderator of choice reversals we examined through
meta-analysis was whether reversals were more likely when participants chose the
higherbeauty paintings within the blocks. This possibility seemed likely given that if our attempts to
bias their interim choices were not effective, then we should not expect to obtain a preference
reversal. Regardless of whether the contrast paradigm succeeded, some reversals will occur for
both reversal and control blocks, particularly given the matching of initial preference for the
critical painting pairs. Importantly, the contrast paradigm is useful for examining predictors of
reversals other than contrast. Experiments 1B and 2 examined a third potential moderator of
reversals highlighted in recent studies: People's memory for their initial choices. A single
choice or rating of an item among other alternatives has been found to affect later judgments/
choices involving that item, by strengthening the initial assessment of that item and weakening
the assessment of the alternatives [36±37]. Such post-decision changes have been argued to
result from memory consolidation and increased differentiation between chosen and rejected
items [37±38]. It has also been linked with a desire to reduce cognitive dissonance [
39
],
wherein providing negative information about chosen products following initial assessments can
induce greater change in favor of the chosen item than providing positive information [
36, 40
].
More recently, choice-induced preference changes have been reported using a paradigm
that incorporates two consecutive rating opportunities for the same items, to control for
artifacts caused by regression toward the mean [41±43]. Using this paradigm, Salti et al. [
43
] first
had participants rate their desire to visit each of a set of vacation destinations (rating
opportunity 1). A forced-choice block presented pairs of a subset of the previously rated destinations
(choice block 1). Another rating of all of the destinations then occurred (rating opportunity 2),
followed by a final choice block for the remaining subset of destinations (choice block 2). The
3 / 15
second ratings of items from choice block 1 represent the uncorrected rating-choice-rating
condition, whereas those from choice block 2 represent the rating-rating-choice condition.
Ratings for previously chosen vacations increased across rating opportunity 1 and 2 in both
conditions. Genuine preference changes have also been reported when the rating scale
changed across rating opportunities from liking to willingness-to-pay [
44
].
Memory for previous judgments has been shown to moderate these preference changes.
For example, participants who forget their initial choice are significantly less likely to exhibit
the expected spread of alternatives across ratings [
41, 43
]. The authors of these studies propose
that forgetting one's initial choices eliminates the possibility of experiencing cognitive
dissonance later on, such that participants no longer feel pressured to strengthen their initial
judgments by increasing their second ratings. In line with this cognitive dissonance explanation,
participants who remember their initial choice in our contrast paradigm may also feel more
pressure to later make a consistent choice. To evaluate this possibility, in Experiment 1B and 2
we measured people's subsequent memory for their initial choice. We then used meta-analysis
to determine whether accuracy of memory for initial choice moderated preference reversals.
Based on prior findings [
41, 43
], we expected that this would indeed be the case.
Experiment 1: Within-subject design
Method
Ethics statement. This research was approved by the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics
Board at the University of Calgary. Participants received course credit in a psychology course
in exchange for participating. They gave informed consent for the online study by reading an
on-screen consent form and clicking an ªI agree to participateº button. An on-screen
debriefing was provided at the end of the study.
Participants. Undergraduates from a research participation pool volunteered to take part
in either Experiment 1A (N = 96, female = 62, mean age = 21, age range = 18±37) or
Experiment 1B (N = 224, female = 166, mean age = 21, age range = 17±52). Only 4 participants
identified as art experts post-experiment, so art expertise was not considered further.
Stimulus selection. The stimuli were abstract paintings selected through four initial pilot
studies, each of which used unique additional sets of participants from the same participation
pool. At the outset, 240 images of abstract paintings were chosen from several online image
databases (e.g., Artstor, Oxford Art Online) and Google searches (e.g., ªugly paintingsº) in an
effort to span a wide range of beauty. To obtain enough high-beauty paintings it was necessary
to include a few paintings by somewhat well-known artists (e.g., O'Keefe), but all or nearly all
of paintings were unfamiliar to the participants, particularly given that the vast majority of
them self-identified as art novices. The selected paintings typically did not depict obvious
semantic or representational content. Each image was resized to 500 pixels on the longer
dimension. An initial 21 participants rated the beauty of all 240 paintings on a 9-point scale
(1 = ugly, 5 = neither ugly nor beautiful, 9 = beautiful). Based on their ratings, 36 paintings
were selected that were rated as close to 1 (low), 5 (average), and 9 (high) as possible, each of
which had a standard error below 0.5. Another 23 participants rated the beauty of these 36
paintings twice (in successive blocks, freshly randomized for each participant and block). The
mean of their two ratings was used to select the final set of 24 paintings using the same criteria.
Another 22 participants rated the final set twice. The mean for each set, again based on the
mean of the two ratings was 3.18 (SD = .31) for low-beauty paintings, 5.06 (SD = .26) for
average-beauty paintings, and 6.78 (SD = .20) for high-beauty paintings. The correlation between
the two ratings for a given participant (averaged across paintings) was .85, and the correlation
between the two ratings for a given painting (averaged across participants) was .80. Thus, the
4 / 15
ratings were quite stable by participants and by paintings. Finally, another 80 participants were
shown 3 or 4 average/average pairs, 8 average/low pairs, and 8 average/high pairs. They were
asked to choose the more-beautiful painting from each pair. The pairs were then presented a
second time in a freshly randomized order. Based on their choices, 4 average/average pairs
were selected to elicit as close to a 50/50 split in choices as possible (M = .48), 32 average/low
pairs were selected to maximize the proportion of average-beauty choices (M = .89), and 32
average/high pairs were selected to maximize the proportion of high-beauty choices (M = .91).
The painting images, due to copyright reasons, are available from the first author.
Design. In Experiment 1, each participant received one reversal block and one control
block, the order of which was counterbalanced across participants. There was no overlap in
the paintings shown in the two blocks. To measure reversals, the same critical pair of average
paintings was presented before and after each block (Fig 1). The left/right order of the critical
painting pairs always changed across choices. A filler block (not analyzed), consisting of two
high/low painting pairs not part of the final painting sets, was presented before choice 1 in
each block both to provide task practice and to help mask the structure of the main trials.
The reversal and control blocks each consisted of 6 randomly ordered trials, bookended by
the critical average-beauty pair (Fig 1). Choice 1 dictated the structure of the reversal block.
The reversal block included 2 trials in which the non-chosen average painting was paired with
a low-beauty painting. These trials were designed to bias participants toward the painting they
did not pick for choice 1. The reversal block also included 2 trials in which the chosen average
painting was paired with a high-beauty painting. These trials were designed to bias participants
away from the painting they picked for choice 1. The inclusion of both types of contrast trials
(biasing toward non-chosen paintings and away from chosen paintings) ensured matched
exposure to both the chosen and non-chosen painting from choice 1 and thus eliminated mere
Fig 1. The contrast paradigm. Reversal and control blocks were bookended by a choice between the same two average-beauty paintings, denoted
A1 and A2. The example illustrates a preference reversal because A1 was chosen for Choice 1 but A2 was chosen for Choice 2. L and H refer to
lowand high-beauty paintings, respectively. Numbers denote different paintings.
5 / 15
exposure as a potential confounding factor [
45
]. There were also 2 high/low-beauty pair trials.
These trials reinforced choosing the higher-beauty paintings while controlling the number of
exposures to each low, average, and high-beauty painting (i.e., 2 exposures each). Each
painting appeared once on the left side and once on the right side.
The control block was identical to the reversal block, except a different pair of
averagebeauty paintings, not presented elsewhere in the experiment, was used in the control block
sequence (Fig 1). The control block was not expected to impact choice 2 because neither
critical painting appeared in the control block. The critical test of the reversal effect was whether
the reversal rate was higher in the reversal blocks than in the control blocks. In total, each
participant received 20 pairs of paintings.
Assignment of average/average pairs to block type (reversal vs. control) and role (reversal
pair vs. control pair) was counterbalanced. Each participant received the 2 low-beauty and 2
high-beauty paintings within a given block, but the assignment of average painting pairs and
block type were counterbalanced. The 8 counterbalances were randomly assigned to
participants. S1 Table provides the counterbalancing details for each experiment.
Procedure. Participants took part in the online study through the Department's online
research participation site. The instructions told participants to allot 30 minutes to complete
the experiment in one session, but no time limit was placed on their responses or session. They
were asked to maximize their browser window to enable them to view the full paintings
without scrolling, and they were asked to limit distractions by exiting other applications and
putting away their phones. They were then given the following instructions:
On each trial in this study you will be shown two paintings side by side. Your task is to
choose which painting you think is more beautiful. Make your choice based on your
automatic and spontaneous feelings for the two paintings at that moment. Recommended ways
to choose between the two paintings include imagining which painting you would like to
see again, or which painting you would most prefer to hang on your wall. You will be
shown some pairs of paintings twice because we wish to determine whether what people
deem beautiful in art is stable or variable over time. You should not feel any pressure to
choose the same painting each time, nor should you feel any pressure to choose a different
painting each time. Instead, each time you see a pair of paintings just choose based on your
automatic and spontaneous feelings for each painting at that moment.
These instructions were designed to avoid biasing participants either toward or away from
reversing their choices.
Experiments 1A and 1B were identical with two exceptions. First, Experiment 1B also
considered whether reversals were associated with memory for choice 1 by measuring
initialchoice identification accuracy. To this end, after the second block, participants were shown the
critical average-beauty pair from each block again, starting with the critical pair from their
more recent block. They were asked to ªindicate which painting you chose when you were
shown this exact pair of paintings in this order earlier in the study.º The paintings appeared
in the same left/right order as on the choice 1 trial, to help cue participants' memory. Second,
we were also interested in determining whether reversals might be more likely when
participants had a weaker preference for choice 1. Therefore, in Experiment 1B, after each choice in
each block, participants indicated on a 9-point scale their degree of preference for the chosen
versus non-chosen painting (1 = slightly more, 5 = somewhat more, 9 = very much more) [
46
].
These ratings proved uninformative and are not discussed. The mean completion time was
6.24 min in Experiment 1A and 10.37 min in Experiment 1B; no participants exceeded 30
minutes.
6 / 15
Experiment 2: Between-subject design
Method
Another unique set of participants were selected from the same participation pool (N = 384,
female = 294, mean age = 20, age range = 17±58); a larger sample was drawn due to the
between-subject design. Participants were assigned to either the reversal or control group and
to a given counterbalance in equal numbers (see S1 Table). Experiment 2 was identical to
Experiment 1B except participants received either 2 reversal blocks or 2 control blocks. The
mean completion time was 9.28 min; 8 participants were replaced for exceeding 30 min.
Results
The data and meta-analyses can be found in the following OSF repository: https://osf.io/j5a76/.
Three meta-analyses were conducted on the raw data from all participants to maximize power
while allowing us to examine the potential moderation of our effect. Models were fit using the
rstanarm package [
47
] in R 3.3.1 [
48
] with four independent chains of 6,000 iterations each and
a warm-up period of 3,000 iterations each (producing 12,000 useable samples overall). The
categorical predictors were condition (reversal vs. control), design (within vs. between), and
initialchoice identification (correct vs. incorrect). The continuous predictor was expected choicesÐ
the proportion of higher-beauty choices made for the 4 trials involving an average-beauty
painting within each block. Prior to fitting, the categorical predictors were centred (i.e., coded as -1
or 1) and the continuous predictor was scaled (i.e., mean centered and standardized according
to its standard deviation). Uninformative priors were employed for both the intercept and
slopesÐrepresenting a normal distribution with a logit-transformed mean of -1 and standard
deviation of 1 (reflecting a weak expectation that reversals would occur less than 50% of the
time) and a logit-transformed mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.5, respectively. Due to the
small number of replications per subject, mildly regularizing priors were also placed on the
random effects using the decov function from the rstanarm package with a regularization constant
of 2 and a scale constant of 3. Sensitivity analyses revealed our conclusions to be robust to a
variety of uninformative priors.
Convergence of each model was confirmed visually as well as using the R-hat statistic (in all
cases R-hat 1 and NEffective > 2000, indicating convergence [
49, 50
]). Where appropriate,
models included both subject-level random intercepts (modelling individual differences in
the absolute propensity to reverse) and slopes (modelling individual differences in the
magnitude of each slope coefficient). Item-level random effects were not included because only 4
critical painting pairs were used. Experiment-level random intercepts and/or slopes were also
excluded because only 3 experiments were conducted. We therefore report the equivalent of a
fixed-effect meta-analysis of the individual participant data. Including item-level random
effects and/or experiment-level random effects had minimal impact on model parameters and
did not affect our conclusions.
Our primary interest was in understanding the impact of our experimental manipulation,
thus condition was included in each model. However, we were also interested in
understanding the potential influence of study design, initial-choice-identification, and expected choices.
It was not possible to include all of these predictors in a single model given the design and data
constraints. Instead, each model included condition along with a single other moderator, plus
the relevant two-way interaction. We fit each model with the maximal random structure, but
convergence issues for the model that included the initial-choice-identification predictor
required us to fit the maximal structure possible given the data instead (in this case a random
intercept and slope for condition only). Models included all data measuring the relevant
7 / 15
Fig 2. Probability of preference reversals as a function of condition and expected choices. The left panel contains the raw predicted
values and the right panel contains difference scores (reversal±control) for each level of expected choices. Error bars represent 95% (thin
lines) and 50% (thick lines) HDIs.
variables. Simple effect estimates were calculated at the midpoint of other variable within that
model.
The first meta-analysis examined the probability of a reversal as a function of condition and
expected choice rate in a Bayesian logistic mixed-effects model. Counterfactual predictions are
depicted in Fig 2 and logit-transformed model coefficients are provided in Table 1; each plot
represents mean performance (back-transformed into percentages) predicted for an average
participant within the model. Fig 2 clearly depicts an overall tendency for participants to
reverse their aesthetic choice more frequently in a reversal block, M = 14.4%, HDI95% [9.6%,
18.3%], than in a control block, M = 10.0%, HDI95% [6.3%, 13.2%], difference = 4.4%, HDI95%
[0.0%, 8.2%]. Importantly, Fig 2 also clearly shows that this reversal effect occurs only for
participants who consistently made the expected higher-beauty choices during the contrast trials.
Indeed, the effect of condition was 14.7%, HDI95% [8.8%, 21.0%] greater for participants whose
expected choice rate was 75 or 100% than for participants whose expected choice rate was only
0 or 25%.
Notes. Variables were centred prior to analysis (see text) and parameters are provided in logit-space. Values in parentheses represent 95% HDIs.
8 / 15
Fig 3. Probability of preference reversals as a function of condition and design. The left panel contains the raw predicted values and the
right panel contains difference scores (reversal±control) for each level of design. Error bars represent 95% (thin lines) and 50% (thick lines)
HDIs.
The second meta-analysis was fit in the same manner, but now included design in place of
expected choices. Counterfactual predictions are depicted in Fig 3 and logit-transformed
model coefficients are provided in Table 1. The reversal effect was again apparent, with more
preference reversals occurring in reversal blocks, M = 16.6%, HDI95% [11.9%, 20.8%], than in
control blocks, M = 9.5%, HDI95% [5.8%, 12.9%], difference = 7.1%, HDI95% [2.5%, 11.6%].
The condition effect was numerically larger in the within-subject design (94.1% of the credible
values for this difference were positive), but the model failed to credibly exclude the possibility
that design had no influence, M = 5.7%, HDI95% [-1.8%, 12.9%].
The third meta-analysis was fit in the same manner, but now included initial-choice
identification as the moderator. Experiment 1A was excluded because it did not measure this
variable. Due to convergence issues, we were unable to include random effects for the main effect
of initial-choice-identification or the interaction±so this model included only the random
intercept and slope for condition. Counterfactual predictions are depicted in Fig 4 and
logittransformed model coefficients are provided in Table 1. Despite excluding a sizable portion of
our sample, the reversal effect was still evident, although the difference between reversals
Fig 4. Probability of preference reversals as a function of condition and initial-choice-identification accuracy. The left panel contains
the raw predicted values and the right panel contains difference scores (reversal±control) for each level of accuracy. Error bars represent
95% (thin lines) and 50% (thick lines) HDIs.
9 / 15
blocks, M = 30.7%, HDI95% [23.7%, 38.3%], and control blocks, M = 24.4%, HDI95% [15.7%,
33.2%], was no longer credible in the reduced sample, difference = 6.3%, HDI95% [-4.4%,
16.9%]. Of greater interest in this meta-analysis is the very large main effect of initial-choice
identification. Participants were far more likely to reverse if their initial-choice identification
was incorrect, M = 68.9%, HDI95% [59.0%, 79.1%], than if it was correct, M = 6.0%, HDI95%
[3.2%, 9.0%], difference = 62.7%, HDI95% [51.6%, 73.9%]. The interaction between condition
and initial choice identification was not at all credible, difference = 5.3%, HDI95% [-26.0%,
13.7%]. However, this might be due to the small number of trials in which participants failed
to recall their initial choice (8% for the control blocks and 17% for the experimental blocks).
As a potential avenue for future study, the pattern pointed toward a larger effect of condition
for trials in which participants made an incorrect initial-choice identification at the end of the
experiment.
Discussion
We introduced a novel paradigm for rapidly inducing reversals in choices, using contrast
manipulations previously shown to influence aesthetic judgments [34±35]. Meta-analyses
confirmed that choice reversals between pairs of average-beauty abstract paintings were more
likely following reversal blocks than following control blocks. Our paradigm thus succeeded in
inducing reversals for the same choice in the same task by the same participantÐseparated by
only 6 intervening choices. Notably, our paradigm shows that under the right conditions, it is
possible to induce choice reversals indirectly through context manipulation rather than by
manipulating the target choices directly, such as by varying their relative durations [25±26].
Our paradigm thus complements an existing set of paradigms for inducing and studying
choice reversals [13±26]. We implemented the contrast paradigm in both within-subject
(Experiment 1) and between-subject (Experiment 2) designs. We did not find a credible effect
of design in our meta-analysis, but the effect was certainly not larger in the between-subject
design. Given that the within-subject design controls for individual differences (because each
participant serves as their own control), it may be preferable in most situations.
Two other aspects of our results were novel. First, the reversal effect was related to the
number of expected choices participants made within the blocks. Second, and replicating recent
findings using a different paradigm [
43
], reversals were more likely for participants who
incorrectly identified their initial choices later in the experiment. Thus, memory for initial choices
was related to choice reversals. We next consider each of these key aspects of our study in
more detail.
The role of expected choices in modulating choice reversals
The meta-analysis showed that reversal effect was present only when participants' choices
were consistently biased in the expected manner within the reversal block (see Fig 1). Merely
being exposed to the reversal block pairs was not sufficient to produce a reversal
effectÐparticipants' choices had to be successfully biased for the effect to occur. Indeed, the reversal effect
was essentially limited to participants who always chose the expected painting. Because this
function was not predicted, we did not set a ªproportion of expected choices cut-offº for
analysis of the reversal effect in our meta-analyses. However, as Fig 1 shows, the reversal effect was
substantial when participants' choices were effectively biased by the contrast trials.
The role of memory in modulating choice reversals
The meta-analysis also showed that participants who misremembered their initial choice were
much more likely to later reverse their choiceÐregardless of condition. This finding dovetails
10 / 15
nicely with other recent evidence suggesting an important role for episodic memory for past
choices in creating preferences [
41, 43
]. A critical direction for future research will be to
unpack the relationship between memory and choice reversals. People who cannot recall their
initial choices cannot experience cognitive dissonance for those choices. Perhaps this frees
them from feeling pressure to be consistent, thus increasing the likelihood of choice reversals.
Conversely, participants who misremember their initial choice may feel pressure to be
consistent, ironically leading them to reverse their choice.
One potential concern with our initial-choice identification measure is that it may not have
accurately captured participants' memories, given it was collected at the end of the main
experiment. It may have been difficult for participants to remember their initial choice given our
method. Our choice memory measure was similar to the measure used in previous work [
41,
43
], except our measure involved presenting the stimuli in their original pairs rather than
individually. In their fMRI study, Chammat et al. [41] found that the behavioral relationship
between memory assessed after the main experiment and choice-induced preference change
was also present neurally; greater BOLD activation in the hippocampus was found in the
rating-choice-rating condition compared to the rating-rating-choice condition, but only for
remembered items. They obtained further evidence of a link between hippocampal activity
and choice memory using intracranial electrophysiological recordings of hippocampal
eventrelated potentials in epileptic patients while they completed the task. The similarity in memory
measures across their studies and ours supports our claim that our initial-choice identification
measure reflected participants' memory for items and choices, even though it was collected at
the end of the experiment. However, future research should examine whether the effect obtains
when memory for choice 1 is measured immediately after choice 1 and/or 2.
Exploring the contrast paradigm
There are many potential ways to extend the contrast paradigm, including exploring how
choice reversals are affected by adding a delay between choices and by adding more repetitions
of the reversal block trials [
51
]. The paradigm might also yield larger reversal effects if a
participant's own ratings were used to select the paintings for the blocks, as was the case in Salti et al.
[
43
], rather than using piloting norms to select items. Other methods of amplifying the reversal
effect could also be explored. For example, a cognitive load task may reduce participants'
ability to exert cognitive control and/or to experience cognitive dissonance [
1, 52
], in turn
rendering them more susceptible to contrast effects.
Whether the contrast paradigm induces reversals for other types of stimuli also warrants
consideration. In the aesthetics domain, in light of evidence that abstract and representational
artworks are evaluated differently [
12
], it would be worth testing whether a reversal effect
occurs for representational paintings. Stimuli of interest to marketers, such as logos, brands,
and products could also be used. For example, Zellner, Allen, Henley, and Parker [
53
] induced
a contrast effect on people's preferences for juice samples. Our paradigm could easily be
adapted to examine choice reversals for actual samples of products.
Implications for aesthetics research
Sets of similar paintings, or of other types artworks, are often curated and displayed together
in exhibits, galleries, books, or albums. Our research adds to a growing body of evidence that
examines how judgments about artworks are influenced by the other artworks in a given
context [
32, 35, 54
]. Such findings will prove helpful for constraining accounts of aesthetic
judgments [55±58]. For example, the finding of contextual influences on aesthetic choices indicates
that the objective qualities of stimuli cannot fully explain the basis of aesthetic preferences
11 / 15
[
12
]. A stimulus that is deemed more beautiful than another stimulus in one context may be
deemed less beautiful in another context.
One limitation of our study for researchers interested in aesthetics is that we did not
determine which properties of the paintings we selected led them to be consistently rated as low,
average, or high beauty in our pilot studies. A related study from our lab examined which
subjective ratings and objective stimulus properties predict beauty ratings based on the paintings
in our initial stimulus set [
59
]. Greater liking of abstract paintings was predicted by higher
subjective ratings of emotionality, and by higher objective entropy scores (i.e., a computed index
of the unpredictability or disorder of the pixels in a painting image).
Conclusion
The present study contributes to our understanding of the factors that modulate subjective
choice reversals. The contrast paradigm highlights the curious instability of choices among
similar alternatives, as well as the influence of local context on choices. We also reported new
evidence that memory for initial choices can offer a protective factor against subsequent choice
reversals. These preliminary findings lay the groundwork for extending the contrast paradigm
in ways that will inform future research on preferences, choices, and decision makingÐ
research that should prove informative for marketers, economists, and psychologists alike.
Supporting information
S1 Table. Counterbalancing conditions in Experiments 1 and 2.
(DOCX)
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: Zorry Belchev, Glen E. Bodner.
Data curation: Zorry Belchev.
Formal analysis: Jonathan M. Fawcett.
Funding acquisition: Glen E. Bodner.
Investigation: Zorry Belchev.
Methodology: Zorry Belchev, Glen E. Bodner.
Supervision: Glen E. Bodner.
Visualization: Jonathan M. Fawcett.
Writing ± original draft: Zorry Belchev, Jonathan M. Fawcett.
Writing ± review & editing: Zorry Belchev, Glen E. Bodner, Jonathan M. Fawcett.
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13 / 15
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